LeVine Line

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 20 January 2017 The past 2.5 years have been truly exceptional for me and my family. That is because of the people of Switzerland and Liechtenstein: the students, ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 25 October 2016 This is the English translation of the recent OnePage.li magazine – a Liechtenstein magazine in German. It was written by me, Suzi LeVine, U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 25 October 2016 In the spring of 2005, I went to Washington, D.C. with an advocacy group to encourage Congress to support the issues about which we cared. ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 25 October 2016 A Presidential election is broken down into three parts – the pre-election, the primary season, and the general election. The pre-election season is when candidates ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 25 October 2016 What is Grassroots Campaigning? And how, exactly does grassroots work – especially as it blends with big data? These examples best demonstrate this combination: Grassroots ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 25 October 2016 During the general election – which we’re in right now – one of the most challenging things can be parsing the news – especially given ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 25 October 2016 In Switzerland and Liechtenstein, if you are a citizen and 18 years or older, you can vote. Also – the process of voting in federal ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 25 October 2016 Election night 2008 will be forever etched in our minds – yes, because of the results. But also because it was a great moment of ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 25 October 2016 1789 — George Washington is unanimously elected president of the United States in a vote by state electors. 1870 — Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 2 October 2016 Eric and I just filled out our ballots and celebrated our right to a voice and a vote! This year was especially exciting because I’ve ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 25 September 2016 Today, Eric, my son and I had the chance to attend and participate in the Interreligious Women’s Parliament held at Bern’s House of Religions. It was an ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 18 September 2016 In my first few months of this position, many asked me whether I intended to visit all 26 of the Swiss Cantons. I didn’t and ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 17 July 2016 One of the Swiss companies that has chosen to deploy their Swiss apprenticeship model in their US facilities is Mikron Automation. They kicked off their ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 17 July 2016 <This is a note I received from Mikron Automation in Colorado from one of their summer interns with her reflections on this chance she is ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 17 July 2016 <Mike Gunner is the General Manager for Mikron Automation in Colorado. With the catalytic energy provided by the Mikron CEO in Switzerland, Mike and team ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 1 June 2016 When I first met Martin Senn, he shared with me the mantra for the work he oversaw at Zürich Insurance Group: “We Care”. His adherence ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 28 April 2016 This blog is guest written by my husband, Eric LeVine. Apart from being a successful entrepreneur and technologist, Eric has also focused heavily on Jewish ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 13 February 2016 A couple of weeks ago, I had a sequence of experiences over a 4 day period that really demonstrate the strength, innovation, and investment in ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 28 December 2015 Below is the English version of my opinion piece that published Sunday, December 27, 2015, in Schweiz am Sonntag. The question posed by Schweiz am ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 6 December 2015 I had the opportunity to contribute an article on Meine Weihnacht (my Christmas) in Die Weltwoche – a major Swiss publication. I’m appreciative of this ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 30 November 2015 This week, leaders from across the globe are gathering in Paris for COP 21, the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 3 November 2015 It is National Apprenticeship Week in the United States this week. Why? Because President Obama said so (in this Proclamation ). Okay – that’s all well and good, but ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 23 October 2015 On a recent trip to Ticino, Eric and I took the opportunity, along with some of my Embassy team, to visit the southern Swiss border ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 27 September 2015 Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had a chance to view collaborations between our nations to explore frontiers that are key to our curiosity ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 21 September 2015 Last year, I introduced the concept of Cheshbon Nefesh in this post (accounting of the soul) – where one looks back at what they’ve accomplished and looks ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 11 September 2015 It was an early morning in Seattle and my husband and I were carpooling across a bridge over a lake in Seattle when the radio ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 12 August 2015 The question “How would you describe Liechtenstein to a farmer in Kansas in three sentences?” was recently asked as a part of an interview I did ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 9 August 2015 “We have not inherited this land from our forebears, we have borrowed it from our children.” In other words, we study the past so it ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 3 July 2015 On Friday, June 26, I had the honor of speaking at the 20th anniversary commencement of the Executive MBA program between the University of Rochester ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 20 June 2015 It was incredible to be there with my fellow members of the global diplomatic corps and to have such a stupendous crowd gathered from across ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 14 June 2014 On my recent visit to Liechtenstein, I had the opportunity to visit 2 companies, meet with students at the University of Liechtenstein, and sit down ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 1 June 2015 On this, the first anniversary of my landing here (2 June 2014) – I want to thank all of you across Switzerland and Liechtenstein for welcoming me ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 17 March 2015 The Jewish holiday of Passover commemorates the Exodus story, which shares that, thousands of years ago, Moses led my ancestors out of slavery in Egypt. ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 4 May 2015 In 1776 and 1848, when the United States and Switzerland were founded – respectively, they were among very few democracies. Over the centuries, how we ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 6 April 2015 Over the past 10 months, I’ve made a concerted effort to visit those Swiss companies with or considering a meaningful US footprint. A few weeks ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 12 March 2015 A few weeks ago, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Firmenich, a unique and wonderful company in Geneva who has a major footprint in ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 8 March 2015 Here’s the link to watch the speech. A couple of weeks ago, I visited Gymnasium Oberaargau (or Gym/O) in Langenthal. As I’ve said many times, students ask phenomenal ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 8 March 2015 I have always (literally always – as I know that the year I was born was when James Taylor was getting traction) loved James Taylor’s ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 8 March 2015 There are many articles coming out now that are heralding the end of Ebola – or at least a dramatic reduction in the What is ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 22 February 2015 If I only do one thing during my time as Ambassador – that one thing – the very top priority and essence of my job ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 5 February 2015 On Sunday night/Monday morning, even though my Seahawks didn’t win the Superbowl, I feel like I had a big win because I got to learn ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 1 February 2015 What follows is the English version of an op-ed that ran today – February 1, 2015 – in the NZZ am Sonntag . Why do I have a passion ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 9 January 2015 On Wednesday, I had the incredible honor of being invited to present to and have a conversation with the UBS Moms@Work group – an affinity ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 5 January 2015 One of the core values we share between Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the United States is a deep respect for the environment. Therefore, as we head ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 3 January 2015 I have found in this job that the only commonalities across weeks are that they are very varied and that they give me the opportunity to ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 31 December 2014 Goodbye 2014 – What an extraordinary year you have been! Welcome 2015 – I’m looking forward to seeing what you bring! So much has happened, ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 27 November 2014 One of the traditions my family practices during Thanksgiving is to take a moment to recognize that for which we’re thankful from the previous year. ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 23 November 2014 This week was a great example that, in this job, no two weeks, nevermind two days, are the same. It was also an example of ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 16 November 2014 I don’t know about you, but I find that, no matter how much time I plan before I need to make a train, I get ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 10 November 2014 I suspect that some non-zero percentage of my blood is coffee (albeit decaf). I had my first latte during my first major job interview and ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 22 October 2014 “It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is.” – Chief Justice John Marshall in Marbury v. Madison ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 1 October 2014 Over the past month, I’ve had the opportunity to see an extraordinary amount of power here in Switzerland – but not the kind of power ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 29 September 2014 I know this post is about the United States, but before I kick into gear on Direct Democracy in the US, I want to quickly ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 28 September 2014 In his UN General Assembly speech , President Obama spoke about partnerships and how, only by coming together, would we be able to address the world’s toughest challenges as ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 24 September 2014 Tonight starts Rosh Hashana – the Jewish New Year. Shana Tova! A Sweet New Year to all! This will be my first time spending the ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 11 September 2014 Last week – on Sept 4th – I had the extreme honor of closing out the Tages-Anzeiger Women’s Forum. This was a daylong event with ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 10 September 2014 I arrived in Switzerland 100 days ago. Listening. Learning. Absorbing. I came in with abundant knowledge gained from briefings, I had traveled to Switzerland twice ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 4 September 2014 I don’t very often have a complete turnaround in my thoughts and perceptions (I suspect that’s the case with most people). Fortunately, I went into ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 16 August 2014 Okay – maybe the title is a bit much – but by the end of my visit there, I was feeling pretty excellent. Summary: Last ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 7 August 2014 Direct Democracy has some variation in its application across the world, but is fundamentally the concept that the people get to make the law. Representative ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 4 August 2014 In my recent Independence Day remarks , I talked about the solid foundation we have for the relationship between our nations and that we need to remember to celebrate ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 29 July 2014 One of the first questions I’m asked is whether I plan to visit all 26 cantons during my time here. Well – I have some ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 18 July 2014 On Wednesday, I was honored to be able to attend the Montreux Jazz Festival and got a chance to see Stevie Wonder – WOW – ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 6 July 2014 Has it really only been a month? And did all that happened this past week really only happen within 7 days? It feels like just ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 25 June 2014 On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to visit CERN in Geneva. I went for two reasons: As a self-professed geek… well – that’s reason in and ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 20 June 2014 Can you imagine what it must have felt like to be General Ralph Tate Sr. when, while piloting a search plane, you see the flare ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 16 June 2014 Seattle: Switzerland/Liechtenstein The 2nd most popular question I’ve received since I’ve been here has been “Doesn’t it rain a lot in Seattle?” Well, yes it ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 12 June 2014 Yesterday, my e-reader became a part of the permanent collection at the Museum für Kommunikation . I was profoundly honored to have been asked to donate my device, ...

This post is part of an archived series of blogs called The LeVine Line, written by former Ambassador Suzan G. LeVine during her time at U.S. Embassy Bern. 10 June 2014 Welcome! I’m incredibly humbled and honored by this opportunity to build bridges between our nations! In light of that, for my inaugural post, I want ...

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